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- WORLD, Page 41World NotesUNITED NATIONSYeltsin: A -- Li Peng: C-
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- The formal result of the meeting was a bland resolution
- urging expansion of United Nations peacekeeping efforts. But the
- mere fact that the first ever summit meeting of the Security
- Council convened testified to the U.N.'s growing clout. Of the 15
- members, 13 sent heads of government; two grabbed the spotlight.
- Russian President Boris Yeltsin was trying to shed his image as
- a hard-drinking oaf. Chinese Prime Minister Li Peng was trying
- to shed his pariah status as the Butcher of Beijing.
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- Yeltsin came across as a serious statesman, repeating
- sweeping disarmament proposals and adding an intriguing
- suggestion: a global missile-defense system that would blend
- Russian defense technology into the U.S. Star Wars program.
- Having just decreed the release of the last 10, he boasted that
- "there are no more prisoners of conscience in free Russia." But
- if Yeltsin earned high marks, Li barely passed. Despite support
- in the final summit declaration of "respect for human rights,"
- Li denounced such concerns as "an excuse" for interference in
- a country's internal affairs.
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